Toy wheel.



A. C. GILBERT.

TOY WHEEL.

APPLICATION FILED DEC 18. I916.

Patented Mar. 19, 1918.

' ran s'ra ATENT @FFECE.

ALF-RED C. GILBERT, O]? NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE A. C. GILBERT COMPANY, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

TOY WHEEL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 19, 1918.

Application file d l)ecembcr 18, 1916. Serial No. 137,597.

To all whom itimay concern:

a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of New Haven, State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Toy VVhee'ls, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to toy Wheels such as are used in metal toy building sets for constructing various models of buildings, machinery and the like. The invention has special reference to a wheel comprising two sheet metal disks secured together flatwise, the peripheries of said disks being bent out ward so as to form a groove around the wheel, which can thus be advantageously used as a pulley, for example- The invention is not limited in all ofits aspects, however, to this feature.

One of the primary objects of the invention is to providean improved form of hub construction for a toy wheel. Heretofore it has been common to use a machined hub having a reduced neck passing throughthe wheel body and riveted therein. By my invention, however, the necessity of using a machine hub is obviated, and the cost of the wheel is considerably reduced owing to the fact that I employ a hub which can be readily stamped, shaped or drawn ,from sheet metal, and which can be attached to the wheel body in a very simple efficient manner.

To these and other ends, the invention consists in the novel features and combinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a toy pulley embodying my improvements;

Fig. 2 is an edge view of the pulley;

Fig. 3 is a .view similar to Fig. 1, looking from the opposite side;

Fig. 4 is a section on line H of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the.

metal disks 10 having bent peripheries ll to form the groove 12. At the center of each disk is a hole 'or perforation 13 of such size as to form a bearing for the wheel body on the shaft 14. A hub 15 secured to the wheel body at one side fits over the shaft, and is provided with a pinching or clamping screw 16 adapted to engage the shaft so as to lock the wheel thereon.

In carrying out my invention, 1 make the hub 15 of sheet metal and provide it with an interior passageway for the shaft, which at substantially all points is considerably larger than the shaft, except at the outer end of the hub where the latter isprov'ided with a hole or perforation 17, adapted to serve as a bearing for the hub on the shaft, said perforation being in line with, and of substantially the same size as the perforations 13 of the wheel body. The perforations 13, in connection with the perforation 17, furnish spaced bearings for the wheel on the shaft, located at different points in the length of the shaft, and the distance between these bearings is such as to preventcanting of the wheel on the shaft, even if the shaft fits quite loosely in its bearings. The clamping screw 16 is located intermediate the hub bearing 17 and the wheel bearing 13, and

consequently when the screw is tightened,

it clamps the shaft firmlyin both, of said hearings in a substantially uniform manner,

as shown in Fig. 4. At its inner end, the hub 15 is open, as shown in Fig. 5, being of considerably greater diameter than the perforations 13, and at its open inner end it is provided with integral lugs 18, by means of which it is secured to the wheel body. These lugs 18 are adapted to pass through registering perforations 19 in the disks 10 arranged concentrically around the perforations 13, and after the lugs are passed through the openings 19, said lugs are bent up on the far side of the wheel, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4:, whereby the hub and wheel cost of the wheel is reduced to a minimum integral'lugs at the periphery thereof, into such shape as topresent a substantially cylindrical wall 20, and the clamping screw 16 is screwed transversely through this wall, at

16. In the form shown the sheet metal hub member is constituted by a cup having an opening (17 in the bottom thereof, which is of less diameter than the cup bottom. v

It will be obvious that by my invention the owing to the fact that the component parts thereof are very inexpensive and can be assembled with maximum facility. It is manifest, of course, that in assembling the wheel it'is merely necessaryto superpose the two disks l0, so that their openings register with each other, then pass the lugs 18 of the hub through the openings 19, and finally clench or rivet them in place.

7 Without limiting myself to the precise construction shown, I claim:

-1. In a toy wheel,,a pair of sheet metal disks having registering openings therein, and a hollow sheet metal hubhaving lugs passing through andclenched in said openingsand having an end wall spaced from said lugs; substantially as described.

2. The combination of a toy wheel having a circumferential groove formed in its periphery and having a central perforation therein and provided with small openings spaced around said perforation, a hub struck up from sheet metal and having a side wall with lugs passing through and clenched in the openings of said body, said hub having an end wall spaced laterally from the body and providedwith a perforation of the same size as'that in the body, said perforations being alined with each otherand adapted'to Copies of this patent may be obtained for 'serve as spaced bearings for the structure on a shaft or the like, and a clamping screw engaging the side wall of the hub between the hub perforation and the body perforation, the interior of said hub presenting a passage of greater diameter than said perforations; substantially as described.

A t'oy wheel, comprising a pair-0f disklike members, each having a hole formed centrally therethrough and also having slots formed therein spaced about said holes, and

a sheet metal, cup-shaped hub having lugs through, and a sheet metal hub having projections passing through the disk members for securing the hub and disk members rigidly together, said hub having 'a wall at its outer end with a perforation therein, said last-named perforation being in line with and laterally'spaced from the perforations in the disk members, the interior of said hub presenting a passage, larger than said perforations, and the ;side wall of the hub be ing provided intermediate said perforations with a threaded socket for a clamping screw; substantially as described. p 7 V Inwit'ness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand on the llth dayof December, 1916;

ALFRED o. GILBERT.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner or Batents, f

Washington, D. 0. I 

